Integrated Health enters deal with Aetna

THE BALTIMORE SUN

Taking the second step in a new strategy, Integrated Health Services of Owings Mills announced an agreement with Aetna U.S. Healthcare yesterday to offer Medicare HMO plans to nursing home residents in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Massachusetts.

Integrated announced a similar deal for Florida two weeks ago with a different HMO operator, Humana.

The arrangements allow the HMOs to enroll residents in Integrated's long-term care facilities -- a market they have not previously reached -- and pays Integrated for providing primary care with its own doctors and nurses.

Integrated, the country's largest provider of services to people who have been discharged from a hospital, has been basing its strategy on the belief that more and more managed-care insurers will pay Integrated a flat rate to provide a range of rehabilitation, long-term care and home health services.

Aetna U.S. Healthcare, formed last year when traditional insurer Aetna bought U.S. Healthcare, an aggressive HMO operator, has 161,000 Medicare HMO enrollees in the states covered by the Integrated agreement.